The new @bryanhansel.com newsletter tackles The Blue Hour bryanhansel.substack.com/p/the-blue-h...

The Blue Hour: The Magic and Often Missed Time for Photography open.substack.com/pub/bryanhan...

The northern lights, a canoe, and wilderness is almost all I need in life. Living simply is living better.

I've been sitting on the website onabicycle.com for probably a decade. It's up for renewal in October. I'm trying to decide if I will ever do anything with it or if I should just let it go.

I don't want to be on my death bed with a long bucket list that I've never accomplished, so I've decided not to have a bucket list.

My Online Adobe Lightroom class is open for registration. www.bryanhansel.com/shop/online-...

I got to test the new BioLite Range 400 headlamp before it launched today. Here's my review. The short: If you're looking for a headlamp, you're going to want to consider this one. www.paddlinglight.com/articles/bio...

I think they got Friday the 13th wrong here

I'm writing an essay about how we need to expand access to public lands due to the potential of AI reducing the hours we need to work, and I ran across this interesting article. Effortful leisure is a source of meaning in everyday life www.nature.com/articles/s44...

I just wrote about when fall colors typically happen on Minnesota’s north shore, and I may have to eat my words. The maples are already starting to turn and in some areas it’s surprisingly early! substack.com/home/post/p-...

I think this is at about the final stage of this map. I'm slowly realigning sections of the Superior Hiking Trail to Strava Heat Maps. After that's finished, I'll be able to redo the mile markers and then finish up the labeling on all the maps. Then I'm calling it done for this edition.

We canoed into the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness to find the Viking Dolmen. My 10yo spent a long time trying to find the rumored runes that were carved into the stone. He couldn't see find them.

Updated my speed records to reflect a 49-day, 1,350-mile SUP trip. It's a first, but was non-continuous as the paddler returned home for a week during the trip. www.paddlinglight.com/articles/lak...

I'd rather be canoeing than working today. Instead I'm at my computer finishing up a few projects.

GPS data is approximate and not 100% accurate. Here's a good example. The trail is mapped via aerial photos. The red lines are my GPS data from a bike ride yesterday. I rode it out and back, and you can see how off my GPS tracks were.

After the TACO met with the KGB guy, the TACO posted a one-word post on his social media network. It was 'Bela.' Bela is a tragic and abused woman character in Russian novelist Mikhail Lermontov's 1840 novel "A Hero of Our Time." Coincidence or a code to his handler?

I'm in the eye of a frog.

On June 23, 2025, the USDA announced plans to dismantle the 2001 Roadless Rule, stripping protections from 58.5 million acres of National Forest roadless areas and opening them to road building and logging. I write about the potential impact on Minnesota. www.paddlinglight.com/articles/wil...

Today's Minnesota map is Minnesota's Biggest Cities and Smallest Towns by area according to the MNDOT.

I went to the local Subway to get a sandwich and was told I couldn't order one without a permit to carry.

Zpacks Pivot Solo First Look I recently got a Zpacks Pivot Solo to review, and I’m excited. The Zpacks Pivot Solo is an ultralight, single-wall, solo tent that with poles, eight stakes, and stuff sacks weighs 1 pound 5.5 ounces (611 grams). www.paddlinglight.com/reviews/zpac...

Wild Lands at the Edge of the Boundary Waters At Risk #minnesota

I just noticed a local photographer in my area is offering mini-portrait sessions for $40 with a guarantee of 10 images. How does that even pay for insurance and expenses?

The Adventure Cycling Association has announced the new 50th Anniversary gravel bike route with a general map. It's 3,700 miles long, 70% unpaved and runs through eight states. It's called the Golden Gravel Trail. www.adventurecycling.org/anniversary-...

This is the Zpacks Pivot Solo tent. With the stakes (6 MSR Ground Hogs and 2 Mini Ground Hogs), poles, and stuff sacks, it weighs 1 pound 5 ounces. I'm looking forward to testing this out. It's surprisingly roomy inside for this style of lightweight tent.

Discovery Over Directions Making the Case Against Location Sharing in Photography bryanhansel.substack.com/p/discovery-...

Please, let there be an adult in the room when Trump TACOs to Putin. We don't want him giving away Alaska.

The wildfire smoke is making it hard to get Milky Way shots. And I'm not sure what that light is. It has to be at a remote cabin or house in the woods. There's nothing significant that direction until Finland, MN.

Waterfall Wednesday photos

Map 3 done (I think) on my The Unofficial Superior Hiking Trail Map. I'm working backwards, so just two more to go. I have a hard time finding errors on the computer screen, so I'll need to print this out to find any. Another set of eyes to proof these would be handy, too.

A thunderstorm lights up the clouds over Jock Mock Lake in northern Minnesota.

A few photos from Beltrami County, which earlier this year suffered devastating straight line winds during a derecho. They haven't received federal funds to help with recovery.

I never thought that I'd see the day when the Corporation for Public Broadcasting would announce its closure. It feels like a tipping point on the road to Republican fascism.

My Hand Drawn Maps: Exploring Your Relationship with the Land course is open for registration. It's at the North House Folk School in Grand Marais, MN. northhouse.org/course-sessi...

The Southeast Minnesota Adventure Route was designed for ORVs, but I thought it looked like it might make an interesting gravel biking route. Here's a map I made for it. I'm also toying around with how I'd do maps for my next gravel ride guide that will be for Lake County, Minnesota.

My Unofficial Superior Hiking Trail Map map five of five is about as done as it is going to get. Still need to fix: I wanted the color ramp on the elevation profile on page two to match the colors in the map. It does-ish, but I'm not sure how to make it look cooler. Making color ramps is new to me

Someone cleared a bunch of branches off a tree at Cascade River State Park and opened up this view. I'm not sure if it was the park, because the trims weren't quality trims. But it's a brand new shot now.

My latest photo essay is Photos From Summer Nights. open.substack.com/pub/bryanhan...

The Milky Way over a flooded river in northern Minnesota. The recent rains pushed this river over its banks, and I think that helped make the photo.

I'm having fun making these maps for Minnesota Lakes. They are a little goofy considering the the scale are so big compared to the lakes, but I'm digging them. I'm going to have to print a few of these out on parchment paper.

Here's a chance to back a podcast about the Lutsen Resort fire being produced by a journalist that I know. www.kickstarter.com/projects/lut...

Recreation (dot) gov Is A Total Scam: It’s Time to Overhaul open.substack.com/pub/morethan...

Grand Marais is being a grand marais today. Lots of rain!

A collection of waterfall photos from a short hike I took the other day

‘Canada’ writes back to Minnesota’s GOP congressional delegation. Chastised by Minnesota’s Republican U.S. representatives, “our northern neighbor” fires back. www.startribune.com/tolkkinen-ca...

My The Unofficial Superior Hiking Trail Map is coming along. One thing that I can't figure out how to do is put campsites onto the elevation profile at their correct milage point and elevation. Not a huge deal, but some things with QGIS are way over my head, and this is one of them.

USPS package tracking update: Tennessee > Indiana > Minnesota > Grand Marais, Minnesota (where I live) > Fargo, North Dakota > Saint Paul, Minnesota > Duluth, Minnesota

An Easy Guide To Why The GOP’s Public Land Policies Are Fucking Stupid open.substack.com/pub/wessiler...

I've hiked the land sections of the Ontario-U.S. Border multiple times.* How about you?

The sleeping bag showed up. There's an entire baffle with no down in it. What seemed like the perfect bag seems not to be. I emailed their customer service. Hopefully, they send one that's not defective.